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The Pittsburgh Penguins took to the ice for practice in Dallas on Saturday, and it appears that two players may be poised for a return to the lineup when they face the Stars on Sunday.

Forwards Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari - who missed all of November with upper-body injuries - took line rushes with the team at practice. In addition, the Penguins re-assigned forward Joona Koppanen to their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS).

It's safe to say that the Penguins have been missing both players in their everyday lineup, so getting either player back for Sunday's game would be a welcome sight. With the return of Brazeau, the Penguins would be getting back one of their two injured top-six players - which should help matters with scoring, as Brazeau has six goals and 12 points in 12 games this season. 

Brazeau reunited with Evgeni Malkin and Anthony Mantha on the "mutant line," while Acciari slotted back in on the fourth line.

Here were the lines and pairings at Saturday's practice, which shifted around a bit with Brazeau and Acciari back in the mix:

Forwards
Novak-Crosby-Rust
Mantha-Hayes-Brazeau
McGroarty-Kindel-Koivunen
Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari

Defensemen
Wotherspoon-Karlsson
Shea-Letang
Graves-Dumba
(Imama-Clifton)

Penguins Place Big Forward On WaiversThe <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/">Pittsburgh Penguins</a> have made another move to clear up some space on their roster.&nbsp;

- It is worth noting that even with Koppanen re-assigned to WBS, the Penguins will still have to make a roster move in order to activate both Brazeau and Acciari from injured reserve. 

Boko Imama is the most obvious candidate, as he won't need to pass through waivers since he has been with the team for less than 14 days. But another thing to keep in mind is that rookie defenseman Harrison Brunicke's conditioning loan will come to a close after he plays his fifth game with WBS on Saturday against the Hershey Bears, and he currently occupies a roster spot with the NHL roster. 

Obviously, the easiest thing would be to option Imama, especially as the Penguins will likely lend Brunicke to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship, assuming he is named to the preliminary roster. But it's still something to keep in mind. 

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Earns Big Win Over Lehigh Valley On FridayWilkes-Barre/Scranton got a big win over Lehigh Valley on Friday night.

- Arturs Silovs has only started one of the Penguins' last five games, in which he gave up four goals on 16 shots in a 7-2 loss to  the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 29 and was pulled after the fourth. 

It stands to reason that Silovs will, likely, get one of the Penguins' next two starts, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the Penguins have - at least, temporarily - decided on Tristan Jarry as their primary goaltender. 

The Penguins have won the four games that Jarry has started since he returned from IR, and they lost the sole game Silovs started. Silovs has given up eight goals in his last two starts after a very promising start to the season - and he was pulled in both appearances. 

Revisiting The Jake Guentzel Trade TreeOn Thursday, the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins">Pittsburgh Penguins</a> will take on the <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/tampa-bay-lightning">Tampa Bay Lightning</a> in Florida, as Pittsburgh looks to hold onto its playoff positioning and Tampa looks to extend its Atlantic Division lead.&nbsp;

Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!   

By Jared Clinton, Features Writer

Usually, Anniversaries are met with a little flourish. Maybe a card. Maybe some cake. Flowers, at the very least. If nothing else, though, you expect a modicum of acknowledgement that you’ve reached a milestone, especially when it’s one of those big, round numbers.

But when it comes to the 20th anniversary of the shootout in the NHL, the whole thing came and went without much fuss. So, if not the NHL, let us be the ones to take a moment to recognize it has been two decades since the league adopted the shootout. In fact, when the puck dropped on the 2025-26 season, it had been almost 20 years to the day since the first time fans got to see a shootout in NHL action.

The very first NHL shootout came in the ‘Battle of Ontario’ Oct. 5, 2005, the opening night of 2005-06. The shooter-goalie matchup? It was one with Hall of Fame proportions: the Ottawa Senators’ Daniel Alfredsson had the puck on his stick, with Ed Belfour guarding the crease for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The result? A simple but effective attempt by Alfredsson. His tally, combined with the goaltending of Dominik Hasek, helped the Senators etch their name in the record book as winners of the NHL’s first official shootout.

Since then – and prior to the start of this season – an additional 2,485 games have been decided by way of shootout. That’s a hair more than 10 percent of all regular-season games the past 20 years. And those shootouts have taken on all shapes and sizes, from two-round sweeps and back-and-forth affairs to out-and-out marathons. The longest shootout, which took place Dec. 16, 2014, went 20 rounds, with Florida eventually defeating Washington when Nick Bjugstad netted the winner.

And though the central conceit of the shootout has always been to produce clear-cut winners and losers, it has also delivered iconic moments. Within months of the shootout’s introduction, in a Nov. 26, 2005 outing that saw the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers deadlocked after regulation and overtime, Blueshirts defenseman Marek Malik stepped up to take his turn in the then-record 15th round of the shootout. Staring down Washington’s Olie Kolzig, Malik wound down the ice, tucked the puck back between his own legs and found twine, sending the Madison Square Garden crowd into a frenzy.

While NHL Shootouts Remain Polarizing, Penalty Shots Are Still ExcitingAn NHL insider made an interesting point about encouraging the referees to call more penalty shots, and he's right. Even though the very similar shootout has lost its shine, the penalty shot remains thrilling.

Moments like those – or Pavel Datsyuk’s chip shot, Patrick Kane’s deft dekes or more obscure efforts such as Linus Omark’s spinning start – are seared into the minds of hockey fans. The shootout, in its own way, has shone a brighter spotlight on the dazzling displays of high-end skill that elite-level talents possess. “As a fan, I love the shootout,” said Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. “Whenever I went to Wild games (as a kid) and it went to a shootout, it was like winning the lottery.”

Not everyone is as enamored by the shootout, however. Among those who make their living on big-league ice, the perception of the shootout is somewhat mixed.

Seattle Kraken captain Jordan Eberle is one of the most frequent participants in the player-goalie tete-a-tete. He entered 2025-26 with 87 career shootout attempts, 18th-most in league history. Even before he arrived in the big leagues, Eberle had carved out a reputation as a smooth operator in the skills competition, notably for his heroics in the World Junior Championship. Most remember his game-tying goal against Russia in the 2009 WJC semifinal but forget he also scored the shootout-winner.

Much like one of his breakaway attempts, though, Eberle zigs where you expect him to zag. “I’m not a huge fan of the shootout,” he said.

In part, his dislike stems from changes made over the past two decades. Before the NHL removed the mandate ahead of the 2014-15 season, the ice would be dry-scraped before each shootout. The fresh surface, he said, provided for the slick puckhandling that once made the shootout a must-see event. But when that went away, so did much of Eberle’s enjoyment.

He also feels the conditions surrounding the shootout have changed. “When the shootout came, OT was 4-on-4, and I don’t know the percentage on those games ending, but it was a lot lower than it is now,” he said.

It’s true. There has been a marked change in the number of games ending in extra time since the shift to 3-on-3 overtime. In the first 10 seasons of the shootout’s NHL existence, during which overtime was four-a-side, nearly 57 percent of all contests that went past regulation needed a shootout to find a winner. But the move to 3-on-3 in 2015-16 resulted in an almost immediate uptick in sudden-death outcomes. Prior to this season, exactly two thirds of all games that have gone to overtime since 2015-16 have ended in the extra frame.

And in the eyes of some, the success of 3-on-3 is cause to embrace longer overtimes and even further reduce the likelihood that games are decided by shootout. “There should be a change,” said Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark. “We’ve already changed the offensive game a lot in general, with 3-on-3 and overtime. My two cents, we should add five more minutes of overtime, like at the 4 Nations. Because it comes down more to play.”

4 Nations Face-Off: The NHL Finally Gave The Players What They Wanted, And The Players DeliveredAlmost 15 years to the day from when Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal for Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Connor McDavid grabbed the torch and <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/edmonton-oilers/game-day/oilers-connor-mcdavid-shines-in-the-spotlight">scored the decisive overtime goal</a> to win the 4 Nations Face-Off.

There’s another reason, though, why Eberle, Ullmark and several others throughout the league would like to see overtime extended: being on the wrong side of the result can be tough on the psyche. “It’s funny how you can play a really good game – and I’ve been in this spot – and you’re the last guy to shoot and you miss, how crappy you feel,” Eberle said.

That’s a sentiment that Ullmark echoes. “From the perspective of a goaltender, you can go out and play the best game of your life and have a shutout – and the other goalie can play phenomenal as well – then you go out there and let in three (shootout goals), and you feel like the worst goalie ever,” Ullmark said. “That’s just how it is, plain and simple. And I think a lot of other goalies feel the same way.”

A lot? Perhaps that’s the case – and you can be sure no netminder enjoys feeling like the goat in a losing effort – but the league’s masked men are not a monolith. Ask avowed shootout fan Oettinger, and he’ll tell you there’s a thrill to the all-or-nothing dynamic. “Some people think it’s stupid, but I think it’s fun,” he said. “As a goalie, you’re in the spotlight and get to decide the game.”

Cold Water Poured On Report Oilers Have Acquired Goalie From PenguinsWild goalie rumors swirled, but sources confirm no trade has been finalized between the Oilers and the Penguins.

And while the shootout has its detractors, step into any arena or tune into any game in which a shootout is taking place and you can feel the building living and dying with every attempt. In some respects, it is the game distilled down to its purest form: shooter versus goaltender, head-to-head, with victory or defeat hanging in the balance. “It’s why we play the game,” said Detroit Red Wings right winger Alex DeBrincat. “You get that pressure of the game on your stick, just you and the goalie. It’s a different experience than you get anywhere else.”

This is an excerpt of a feature that appeared in The Hockey News' Prospects Unlimited issue. We profile plenty of top prospects such as Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard, Zeev Buium and Marco Kasper. 

Elsewhere in the issue, we take a look at each NHL team's prospect pool, and we explore several PWHL teams, as well as features on the AHL, ECHL and the NCAA. 

You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/Free today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.

The Florida Panthers welcomed the Columbus Blue Jackets to Sunrise for a fun Saturday afternoon matinee.

Florida never led the game, until it was over, falling behind 4-1 and 6-4 before coming back and earning a thrilling 7-6 victory in overtime.

It was Columbus who got on the scoring started, finding the back of the net early and often.

Just under eight minutes into the game, Damon Severson picked up a power play goal to give the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead.

Florida responded quickly, as Evan Rodrigues jumped all over a Columbus turnover in their own end and waited out goaltender Elvis Merzlikins to knot the score at one 2:07 later.

When the second period arrived, Columbus suddently couldn’t stop scoring.

They picked up a trio of goals less than five minutes apart, suddenly taking a 4-1 lead just past the game’s midway point.

Finally, Florida slowly began to chip away at the deficit.

Carter Verhaeghe scored a pair of goals less than two minutes apart to bring the Panthers back within one of Columbus, first defelcting a point shot by Seth Jones past Merzlikins, then picking up a power play goal off a cross-ice pass from Brad Marchand.

It took less than three minutes after that for Jones to game, wiring home a perfectly placed wrist shot in the top corner of the net with Florida once again on the power play.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, a bad bounce led to Columbus re-taking the lead late in the second period as Cole Sillinger took advantage of a loose puck after it bounced over the stick of Gus Forsling.

The Blue Jackets scored a sixth goal early in third, converting on a 2-on-1 and taking a 6-4 lead 2:27 into the third period.

A gorgeous goal by Brad Marchand less than two minutes later, making a move to his backhand and beating Merzlikins under his pad to cut the Jackets’ lead back to one.

With 5:42 to go, Anton Lundell took advantage of a bad turnover by Columbus after Merzlikins tried clearing the puck, but it deflected off hoard of players and ended up on Lundell’s stick with nothing but an empty net to shoot at.

The game would end up going to overtime, and Florida had to come up with a huge 4-on-3 penalty kill to avoid a fifth straight defeat before they could come up with a game-winner.

As time was running out, Brad Marchand found a streaking Sam Bennett, and his goal with 3.2 seconds left sealed the victory for Florida.

Wow.

On to the Islanders.

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Photo caption: Dec 6, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones (3) celebrates a goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the second period with center Sam Bennett (9) at Amerant Bank Arena. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)